Oscar has a very interesting international background, as he has lived on four continents and experienced people from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds. While becoming an international student he has maintained his ties with his home country of Columbia, and has kept his cultural ties with Columbia as well, something that I have noticed is very important for many international students. In the source, Ethnic Identity of Minority no-fee Preservice Students, from Ivy's research paper, the author argues that people from minority cultures have an extremely strong sense of their identity. No matter where Oscar’s travels may take him he will always bring his Columbian heritage with him. From my interactions with Oscar, he is very proud of where he comes from and it has helped shape him into the man he has become today. During the interview, when asked if he has ever judged someone based on the fact that they speak a minority dialect, he states, “that was not how I was raised, I was taught from an early age not to judge people based on their differences in language or culture, but rather to try and get to know them and really understand where they come from.”

Photo by 33ff.com at http://www.33ff.com/flags/XL_flags/Colombia_flag.gif

The same source from Ivy's research paper proposes that linguistic minorities neglect their minority language and instead focus on the mainstream language of the country in which they are living. Based on my interview with Oscar I have to refute this argument to an extent. While anyone who speaks a minority language will certainly have to learn the main language, it is not imperative to neglect their own. For example, throughout all of Oscar’s travels, from Columbia to Egypt to the Philippines to Atlanta, he has encountered different majority languages in every place he has lived but has kept his dialect of Spanish which he learned from his parents from a small town in Columbia. So I argue that minority language speakers do not neglect their home language but rather continue to use it because as Oscar states, “People from other cultures are curious about minority languages and their cultures, and do not try and get rid of them.”